Cloud 9
by ShakesperianWaffle
Summary: The Flock is tired of running. They decide to take a break so they go to the Martinez's and end up staying for Christmas! FAXNESS!


A short story about the Flock going to Max's mom's house for Christmas; they just hang out and decorate the house, and some other stuff…Fluff and FAXNESS

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does. **

Cloud 9

"Mmm. Hey Fang, you wanna toss me that cookie? No, the one shaped like a reindeer. Yeah—hey!" I glared at Fang as he chewed slowly on _my_ cookie. We had come to Ella's house yesterday and Christmas was coming. We had only come because of my…problems with the chip, but Ella had begged us to stay for Christmas. It was only two days time so I figured what the heck. I mean, can you believe it, us, doing Christmas; who would have thought? We were hanging up decorations and Fang and I were in the kitchen taking a short cookie break.

"That was _my_ cookie!" I pouted.

"I know." Fang said, smirking at me. I aimed a slap to his head but he dodged it laughing. I grabbed another cookie and went into the other room, sticking my tongue at Fang as I went.

Ella, Mom, Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge were all hanging ornaments on the Christmas tree. Iggy was untangling some Christmas lights I supposed were for outside. I went over to him and took some that were already untangled. "I'll go put these up outside, k?" I said to him. He just nodded. He looked really frustrated at the small knot that wouldn't come out of the string he was working on.

I smiled and went outside to put the lights on the house. Call me crazy, but I really liked this. It was nice, not being chased by Erasers for a change, just to relax and spend time with my friends and do fun stuff like make cookies and hang up Christmas lights.

I had only gotten a quarter ways through when Fang came out. He too was holding a string of Christmas lights.

"Thought I'd join you." He said in his usual monotone voice.

"You? The great and almighty Fang, is going to hang up Christmas lights? Oh, now I've seen everything!" I said, trying not to laugh.

"Ha Ha." He said, and went to hang up some lights a couple yards away from where I was hanging my lights.

"So," I started, not exactly sure what to say. Fang glanced at me. "What do you think about this?"

"This' what?" he asked, looking sideways at me.

"You know," I said, not looking at him. "The whole us-being-here-and-not-being-on-the-run-from-Erasers-but-celebrating-Christmas-instead thing?" I let out a gust of air when I finished.

"Well," he said slowly, like he was pondering on what to say next. "The younger kids are loving it, and you seem to be enjoying yourself."

"But not you?" I asked.

He looked back at me. "I'm just worried it won't last much longer." He said calmly.

_Tell me about it._ I thought. "Yeah," I said as I finished hanging my set of lights and stepped off the ladder. "We gotta stay on our guard but that doesn't mean we can't have some fun in the meantime." He turned to look at me and my snowball hit him square in the face. I laughed. Bad idea. Fang wiped the snow from his face and stared at me. Uh oh. I knew that look.

"You are so dead." He said.

"Ooh, I'm scared now!" I laughed and ran off, gathering another snowball up on my way. We're all fast runners, but Fang is the fastest by far. I didn't stand a chance.

I hadn't gone more than a few yards before he caught up with me. I turned to him and threw my snowball, but he dodged it easily. Great, now I was out of weapons. I didn't have time to get another before he tackled me.

We landed hard in a snow bank. Fang started tickling me so hard I had tears in my eyes.

"Okay! Truce! Truce!" I yelled, giggling, and he finally stopped. He was grinning wickedly down at me.

"I win again." He said, chuckling.

"Yeah," I muttered, stuffing a fistful of snow into his face. "Sure you did."

He laughed and then laid down next to me in the snow drift. We were both breathing heavily but we had smiles on our faces. I think this was the most I've ever seen Fang smiling. He should smile more often. He caught my eye.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked casually.

"Nothing really." I said, turning my gaze back to the cloudy sky. "Hey, that cloud looks like a bunny!" I said, pointing to one above our heads. He gave me an exasperated look. "What?" I said, acting all innocent. "I'm just having fun."

He sighed. "You are so weird sometimes." He muttered.

"Right back at you." I shot back and pushed him down the small slope next to us. Too late I realized that he had grabbed hold of my ankle, so I was dragged after him. We rolled down the small hill and landed at the bottom in a heap, laughing. I glanced at my watch and saw that we had been out here for almost an hour already. Jeez, time really does fly when you're having fun. No pun intended. The others were probably wondering what had happened to us.

"Oh, God, look at the time, we should head back." I said to Fang as I got to my feet. He nodded slowly as he too got to his feet. A sudden breeze swept through the little valley and I shivered involuntarily.

"Cold?" he asked, giving me a concerned look.

"Not really." I said, all too aware that my teeth were chattering. Fang pulled me into his arms and wrapped them around me. It was awkward for a second but I got over it. He was warm, and it was nice just standing there, enjoying each other's company.

"Hey," Fang said suddenly. He was looking at the tree above us. "Those leaves sort of look like mistletoe." I looked up too. I didn't know where he thought of that, but I decided to play along.

"Are you implying something?" I asked, giving him with a sly grin.

He looked at me calculatingly. "Maybe I am," he whispered. I started to open my mouth to say something else, but before I could, Fang's lips were on mine. I swear my heart stopped for a second. This was so unlike Fang, not that I minded in the least bit. His lips were warm and moved evenly with mine. I smiled through it and I could tell Fang was grinning too.

Too soon however, our kiss was interrupted by the sound of someone shouting our names. Several someone's in fact. "MAX! FANG! Where are you guys?"

Fang and quickly broke apart and looked up the hill. "Over here!" I shouted. Gazzy came into view, closely followed by the rest of the flock trudging through the snow.

"What are you guys doing?" Nudge asked, looking suspicious.

"We were just hanging out," I said a little too quickly, avoiding Fang's eyes. "Sorry if we worried you."

They all still looked suspicious, except for Iggy who had a small smile on his face, as though he knew Fang and I hadn't just been 'hanging out.'

"Well, Dr. Martinez says dinner is ready, so you guys should come in." Angel said happily, smiling at me. I had a feeling she knew what had happened too, which meant it wouldn't take long before Nudge found out. And Iggy would tell Gazzy.

"K, we'll be there in a minute." Fang said.

The four younger members of the flock walked off back towards the house, chatting about dinner and whatnot. I turned to look at Fang. He smiled and my heart fluttered in my chest. I don't think I'd ever get over that.

"Shall we go?" he asked, holding out his arm for me to take. I grinned and happily took his hand in mine. I gave him a quick kiss and then we walked back to the house through the lightly falling snow. It may have been cold out, but I was warm and happy. I looked at Fang again. He caught my eye and grinned before kissing the top of my head. I smiled; I was definitely on Cloud 9.

**THE END!! PLEEEEESE REVIEW!! **


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